"I can draw it,"said the dreamer,​"but I can't explain it."

Karen Abato, ATR-BC, LCAT, LPC

Karen Abato is a Board Certified Art Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor. A graduate of NYU's Art Therapy Master's Program, in practice for over a decade, with an emphasis on trauma, addiction and personal development. Karen utilizes conferences and trainings to remain current on new and emerging methods within Art Therapy.

art ther·a·py noun

an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change. Art therapists are master-level clinicians who work with people of all ages across a broad spectrum of practice. Guided by ethical standards and scope of practice, their education and supervised training prepares them for culturally proficient work with diverse populations in a variety of settings. Honoring individuals’ values and beliefs, art therapists work with people who are challenged with medical and mental health problems, as well as individuals seeking emotional, creative, and spiritual growth. Through integrative methods, art therapy engages the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language. Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience, and empowers individual, communal, and societal transformation.

"Art Therapy provides the frame within which inner and outer realities meet, allowing the establishment of a relationship between the self and the world, and providing a space to bring order from chaos." (*Karen Abato, ATR-BC, LCAT, LPC)